-
Texas was taken over by the United States in 1845, and there was a disagreement about whether Texas stopped at the Rio Grande (a claim made by the United States) or the Nueces River (a claim made by Mexico). This disagreement led to the outbreak of the Mexican-American War, which lasted from April 1846 to February 1848.
-
It cleared the path for a number of other important events, such as the American Civil War, the growth and removal of Native Americans, and the California Gold Rush. California, Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming were merged into the US as a result.
-
In the Whitman Massacre on November 29, 1847, a small group of Cayuse warriors put an end to the years-long conflicts between white settlers and Native Americans by killing 14 white people and kidnapping 53 more. The Whitmans were a Christian couple who lived among the Cayuse, which is how the massacre got its name.
-
The conflict had profound long-term effects on the area, allowing white colonists to settle in the Cayuse regions while destroying ties between whites and the indigenous tribes and laying the groundwork for a string of further conflicts over the next 40 years.
-
The Compromise of 1850 acted as a temporary truce on the issue of slavery, primarily addressing the status of newly acquired territory after the Mexican-American War. -
Five suggestions, together known as the Compromise of 1850, sought to settle disagreements on slavery in newly acquired lands following the Mexican-American War (1846–48). It established a new border between Texas and New Mexico, accepted California as a free state, let Utah and New Mexico to remain slave states, and simplified the process for slaveowners to reclaim runways under the terms of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. -
A small American civil war known as “Bleeding Kansas” brought pro- and anti-slavery activists against one another for control of Kansas’ newly acquired territory under the theory of popular sovereignty.
-
The significance of "Bleeding Kansas" is that this crisis really pushed the North and South apart and had a great deal to do with causing the Civil War.
-
Determined to find the surviving Seminole in Florida, increased attempts led to the outbreak of the Third Seminole War. Little blood was involved, and in the end, the US paid the group of refugees who were the most resilient to head west.
-
In its 1857 decision that stunned the nation, the United States Supreme Court upheld slavery in United States territories, denied the legality of black citizenship in America, and declared the Missouri Compromise to be unconstitutional. -
After a decade of intense rivalry between Mormons and the federal government over matters ranging from multiple marriage and Indian relations to control and property ownership, the Utah War brought an end to the suffering and violence suffered by both Mormons and non-Mormons.
-
The seven Lincoln-Douglas debates took place in 1858 as part of the Illinois senatorial campaign between Democratic candidate Stephen A. Douglas and Republican opponent Abraham Lincoln. The main topic of discussion was the question of slavery's expansion into new territory. -
In the long term, the Lincoln-Douglas debates propelled Lincoln's political career into the national spotlight, while simultaneously stifling Douglas' career, and foreshadowing the 1860 Election. -
The Secession Crisis refers to the 11 slave states' (states where owning slaves was lawful) exit from the Union after Abraham Lincoln was elected president. Southern states seceded from the union in order to protect their states' rights, the institution of slavery, and disagreements over tariffs. Southern states believed that a Republican government would dissolve the institution of slavery, would not honor states' rights, and promote tariff laws. -
The Battle of Shiloh was a significant engagement during the American Civil War. It was fought near Pittsburg Landing in Tennessee. It was one of the bloodiest battles of the war up to that point, with heavy casualties on both sides. The Union forces, commanded by General Ulysses S. Grant, closed with the Confederate forces under General Albert Sidney Johnston. Though initially surprised by the Confederate attack, the Union army held its ground and eventually secured a strategic victory.